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THE STORY 

OF THE FLAG 






COPYRIGHT, 1917, THOMSEN-BRYAN-ELLIS CO. 






APR 17 1917 






CI.A459822 




HEN you see "Old Glory" fluttering in the sunshine, do you 
ever stop to think of its story? Do you ever wonder why 
some of the stripes are red and others are white, or why 
the stars are in a blue field or canton? 

Perhaps you know that each star represents a state, but 
do you know why the stars happen to be five-pointed? 
There's a reason for it all and the only haphazard part 
of the whole design was a trick of the shears for the amusement of no 
less famous a personage than George Washington and a couple of his 
friends. This you will hear of later in the story, but first let us tell you 
of how the flag came into being. 

The history of the flag of the United States really dates from a 
design furnished by a committee composed of Benjamin Franklin and 
others and adopted by the Continental Congress and General Washington 
about six months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 
It carried thirteen red and white stripes to represent the original thirteen 
colonies but the blue canton contained the English Cross of St. George in 
red and the Scotch Cross of ^St. Andrew in white, one over the other. 
This flag was designed with the idea of showing that the colonies had, at 
that time no idea of separating from England but were still loyal to the 
English King, only demanding liberties and freedom from oppression, 
which it was believed they were entitled to as subjects of the Mother 
Country. 

This flag was first raised over the garrison at Cambridge, Massachu- 
setts, by General George Washington and the Flag Committee, on New 
Years Day, 1776, and was greeted by thirteen cheers from the troops and 
a salute of thirteen guns. The British, who had occupied the city of Bos- 
ton, just across the Charles River from Cambridge, when they saw the 
new banner flying over Washington's camp seemed to understand from 
its design that it meant that the colonies would yield to the King after 
all, for Washington in writing to his Military Secretary on January 4, 
1776, says: "We gave great joy to them (the British) without knowing 
or intending it ; for on that day, * * ~ * we had hoisted the Union flag 
in compliment to the United Colonies. But behold ! it was received in 
Boston as a token of the deep impression the (King's) speech had made 
upon us, and as a signal of submission. By this time, I presume, they begin 
to think it strange that we have not made a formal surrender of our 
lives !" 

It did not take long to convince King George and his generals of 
their mistake. Six months after Washington had raised this first national 
flag of the United Colonies, the Continental Congress met again in Phila- 
delphia and adopted the Declaration of Independence. The American 
colonists, denied their rights for so many bitter years, decided to 
fight England and if successful in the struggle to set up a govern- 
ment of their own. The English had mistaken their first attempt at 
designing a national flag — the Americans would try again — and there 
should be no opportunity for a mistake this time. 

In June, 1776, just before the signing of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, a committee composed of General Washington, Robert 
Morris, and Colonel George Ross, called upon Mrs. Ross, the widow 
of a nephew of Col. Ross, to have a flag made. Now, during the, 
years of trouble with England, all sorts of queer flags had been de- 
signed, first by one colony and again by another, each of a distinc- 
tive pattern but not necessarily of similar design or even color. The 
idea of representing the thirteen colonies by thirteen stripes had 
been tried but so had the thirteen stars in a blue field. These stars 
had generally been five pointed, and the committee agreed upon the 
thirteen white stars in a blue canton, but Washington, in his draw- 
ing of the new flag, made the stars six pointed, because, so the story 



goes, he wished the stars different from those in his own coat of 
arms, which as it happened were five pointed. It is sometimes stated 
that the design for our flag was copied from the Washington Coat 
of Arms, but as there were a number of flags about this time showing 
a combination of thirteen stripes and thirteen stars and as Washing- 
ton never by word or letter suggested such an idea, it can safely be 
said that he had no idea of drafting his coat -of arms onto the flag of 
his country. Sometime later in his life he wrote concerning the flag: 

"We take the stars from Heaven, the red from our Mother Country, 
separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated 
from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity represent- 
ing liberty-" 

Washington and his self-appointed committee then went to Mrs. 
Elizabeth Ross with the design for a new flag. Mrs. Ross was a 
very attractive young widow, twenty-four years of age when this 
first flag was made, and was living in a little house at what is now 
239 Arch street, Philadelphia. She supported herself by carrying on 
an upholstery business; was immensely popular and was known to 
everybody as Betsy. Now Betsy was a famous needlewoman and it 
was only natural that she should be sought as the maker of the new 
flag. The committee headed by Washington, called upon her and 
showed her the pattern. She glanced at it; saw the six pointed stars, 
and picking up a pair of shears, folded a piece of paper and with a 
single clip of the shears cut a five pointed star. 

The committee were delighted with her deftness and explained 
that they wished the flag to be made up of thirteen red and white 
stripes, with the red str pe at too and bottom, which would make 
seven red and six white stripes. The canton was to be a blue square, 
extending from the top of the flag down over seven bars and stopping 
at the eighth, a white stripe. In this blue field was a circle of 
thirteen white stars. In spite of the fact that Washington had shown 
a design of six-pointed stars, Betsy Ross had her way and to this day 
the stars on the flag have been five pointed. There being no end to a 
circle they hoped the new nation for which the flag was designed 
would also be without end, would last until eternity. 

So Betsy Ross with her nimble fingers, while she had little 
to do with the actual design of the flag, followed the instructions of 
Washington and his committee and made the first flag of the United 
States of America. She did this work so well that she was employed 
in making all the official flags for ten years or longer and because 
of her painstaking efforts her name has passed into history along 
with the great men who sought her skill. 

The little house where she lived, at what is now No. 239 Arch 
street, Philadelphia, is still preserved as when she lived there alone 
after the death of her husband. It is called the "Betsy Ross House" 
and is preserved as a memorial. 

The flag was not approved by Congress until after many other 
designs had been submitted, but finally, after about a year, on June 14, 
1777, the flag planned by Washington's committee and made by Betsy 
Ross was adopted. 

So the fourteenth of June, being the day on which the first United 
States flag was adopted, is now known and celebrated as Flag Day. 

The flag remained for eighteen years as Washington's commit- 
tee and Betsy Ross had made it, with thirteen stripes and thirteen 
stars, the stars sometimes being arranged in a circle and sometimes 
in rows, as there was no exact form prescribed^, 

Vermont was added to the Union in 1791 and Kentucky in 1792, 
so that it became necessary to add two more stars to the new con- 
stellation. This was done in 1795, placing two more white stars in 



the blue field and adding two stripes, one red and one white, the 
whole number of stripes being narrower as the size of the flag was 
not increased. This flag remained the national emblem for twenty- 
three years, or until 1818, and was the flag which inspired Francis 
Scott Key, a young lawyer of Washington, to write his famous poem, 
the "Star Spangled Banner." 

The war in 1812 was in full blast. The British had taken Wash- 
ington City, driven out President Madison and the rest of the Gov- 
ernment officials and burned the White House and Capitol, leaving 
only blackened ruins. Young Key had a friend who was prisoner on 
board a British warship. He went, under a flag of truce, to visit 
this friend just as the British were proceeding against Baltimore. 
They took young Key along with them and kept him a prisoner until 
after the attack, as they could not allow him to return and report 
what he had seen on the British ship. The garrison in Fort Mc- 
Henry, in Baltimore harbor, stoutly resisted the attack. The young 
American was naturally very anxious and as the bombardment pro- 
ceeded during the night kept asking himself, "Does the star spangled 
banner yet wave." 

Just before daylight the firing ceased and in the gray dawn of 
the morning he could make out a flag flying over the fort. Was it 
English or his own dearly loved flag? While he strained his eyes in 
the effort to determine, the sun rose and his heart leaped with joy 
as he noted that, "Our flag was still there!" 

On the blank pages of a letter he had received a day of two before, 
he immediately wrote out the wonderful stanzas which are so indel- 
ibly associated with the flag as to make of them a national anthem. 

By 1818 many new states had been added to the Union and it was 
found that to add a new stripe for each new state would be impos- 
sible unless the stripes were narrowed down to pin stripes, so it was 
decided after years of discussion that the number of stripes should 
be reduced to thirteen, the number of states when the Union was 
founded and that stars should show the actual number of states. No 
form or design was set for the arrangement of the stars and additions 
required frequent re-arrangement. So after nearly a hundred years 
the pattern of the flag remains the same with the exception that forty- 
eight stars arranged in six rows of eight stars each now shine from 
the blue field which once held but thirteen. 

How the flag came to be called "Old Glory" is an interesting story 
in itself. A ship master named Captain Driver, of Salem, Mass., 
whose voyages carried him around the globe, was, in 1831, in com- 
mand of a brig named the Charles Doggett. As he was preparing 
to set out on a voyage to the South Seas, a number of his friends 
brought him, as a present, a large, beautifully made flag which being 
immediately hoisted, unfurled and gracefully swung to the breeze. 

Captain Driver, in his admiration of the banner, exclaimed "Old 
Glory!" the first time such name had been given to the flag. The 
expression was caught up and became immensely popular. Captain 
Driver must also have been greatly impressed with the name for he 
was known for many years as "Old Glory Driver". During the Civil 
War he lived in Nashville Tenn., and for years "Old Glory" was 
hidden, but it finally came out of its hiding place and was raised 
over the State Capitol. 

And so today "Old Glory" flutters and snaps in the sunshine over 
a land of the free and the home of the brave; it cheers the wanderer 
in the Philippines, in Guam, the Sandwich and Samoan Islands, in 
Alaska, and over the length and breadth of the Seven Seas, even t» 
the North Pole itself. 



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